Barack Obama briefly meets and greets the overflow crowd waiting in the University of Charleston gym on Thursday, March 20. | Photos by Douglas Imbrogno. Click all photos to enlarge

By Douglas Imbrogno

They handed out too many tickets, that was for for sure. Barack Obama’s speech at Riggleman Hall at the University of Charleston on Thursday, March 20 was supposed to start at 11 a.m. I knew as I approached the U.C. campus along MacCorkle Avenue about 10:05 a.m. that a zoo awaited. Cars were lined up for a half-mile along MacCorkle and in a scrum around the adjacent Montessori school streets. I semi-illegally parked in front of a road sign, counting on the fact that every lawman and woman for five miles had presidential candidate protection on the mind, rather than traffic offenses. (more…)

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker Deville

This Thursday, be a streetwalker (it’s only a crime if you charge money) at this month’s ArtWalk at gallery spaces around downtown Charleston, including now The Clay Center (for more details, see the ArtWalk website). Above is a shot I took on behalf of a bad pun from an ArtWalk last Fall. We’re looking at the Blue Door Studio of Mark Tobin Moore. Below is a very cool artwork by Moore (that’s him on the right, not on the wall). Senor Moore, please tell us the backstory behind your artwork below.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

Sometimes, you just hit a wall. Other times, you have to face it down. These workers were engaged this past Monday in the transformation of the old Boll Furniture at Virginia and Hale streets. The building is being transformed from a store where you could buy an expenseive sofa (and a life-size Betty Boop in the store’s final days when The End Was Near) to office space, as stairs, restrooms, lunchrooms and an elevator are retrofitted into the building’s rear.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

Sometimes, a fellow just has to get out of town (but not very far out of town), stand atop an Indian Mound and get his mojo on. Or in this case, to photograph Mojo’s, as seen from the tippy-top of South Charleston’s Indian Mound. Which I must say is one of the more unusual and refreshing vantage points/viewscapes when you are looking for a little peace & quiet on a cool March evening. I did not meet any Indian spirits while atop the mound, but that’s perhaps because they are just getting to know me…

Guest Photo by Minni Purl (or accomplice)

You’ve got your crappy graffiti and taggers splashing slapdash signatures and IDs willy-nilly on walls, marking their spot like dogs peeing on a post. You’ve got your more sophisticated graffitarians, painting mini-masterpieces on the sides of train cars, city walls and abandoned warehouses. You’ve got your major international street artists like Bansky.

Then, there’s Charleston’s own odd iteration of the form – and possibly the world’s only knitwear graffiti artist — Minni Purl. I will leave for others to delve into the strange psychology of someone sitting at home, knitting stuff, then mounting it in the dead of the night, thence to e-mail out photos to the local media. I had these photos forwarded to me and pass them on. If copycat graffiti knitwear starts appearing in your neighborhood, don’t blame me. But if they ask for an ID the next time you try to buy yarn, I’d take it up with Minni.

Click to enlarge. Photo by Walker DeVille

Five “DowntownWV” bonus points for figuring out the vantage point from which this shot of the Capitol Dome of West Virginia was taken. (HINT: Kids don’t try this yourself). This was the morning of the recent, decent snowfall that painted the town white. See two posts ago. The relationship between landscape (small) and sky (big) recalls one of those Hudson River School paintings of ethereal American landscapes. Painters, the photo’s yours to manifest in oils.

PS– Actually, if you click it once, then click it larger again, it might work as desktop image for your computer.